The Importance of Guidelines

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Most writers will probably think, What’s the point adhering to some boring old guidelines?  Best to impress the target audience with some dazzle.  Maybe a fancy font.  Why not?  A font can communicate mood, tone.  It looks good.  It can be different.  That’s a way to stand out.  Take it a step further: change the background, and that can create a whole new atmosphere.  Floor the reader with visual magnificence.  Let them sit back and say, Wow! before they’ve even read a word.

Wrong.

Here’s some reasons to adhere to submission guidelines.

  1. It shows you have respect for the journal in question by a) reading the guidelines, and b) following them.  Some people have a generic approach to flood the market, and thus they keep the same format for everybody.  Yay.  But it’s nice to feel special, like you’ve taken some time and care just to present yourself for us.  And we don’t ask much – really we don’t.
  2. Examine a journal.  Examine the way it looks.  We use Garamond, with a certain font size and leading.  That’s the way your story’s going to appear for us.  There might be the odd word differently styled here and there just for a bit of garnish (if the story requires it), but overall we’re uniform.  So dressing your piece up in hopes of embellishing it as a reading experience doesn’t cut it.
  3. This will sound narky, but we do so much reading daily.  Eyes tire.  We want the reading experience to be as easy as possible, especially on those marathon days.  To open a file after four hours of reading and find the font is Comic Sans is aggravating and – well, to be honest – prejudicial.  There’s already a little black mark.  Pissy, yeah?  Petty, yeah?  But in any other walk of life, would you be so flagrant?

Writing’s hard.  Submitting’s harder.  Getting accepted is hardest.

Let your story do the talking, and we’ll do the rest if you let us.

 LZ.

Part 6: What’s in a story …?

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Les Zig (chief editor): I look for a story which speaks to me.  I don’t care what it’s about or how it’s written (in terms of POV, tense, structure, etc.).  That’s all stuff which can fall into place later.  I just want to hear the author’s voice from the first sentence.

Every author has a voice which is unique to them.  Some don’t realise it and try to write in ways that are disingenuous (to them).  They try to be (for example) floral, wordy, or self-important, because they it thinks it makes their writing sounds better, or because they think that’s what they need to do to be accepted.  The writers who are confident in themselves as writers don’t.  They ‘re just  themwritingselves.

Just using [untitled] contributors as an example, guys like Ryan O’Neill, A.S. Patric, George Ivanoff, Kirk Marshall, Tess Evans, and Bel Woods (just to name a few – no disrespect to the others) are examples of authors who have distinctive voices.  The moment you pick up one of their stories, you hear them in it.  More than that, it’s a voice which is true and clear.

So that’s what I look for – a story which speaks to me.

Part 5: What’s in a story …?

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Blaise van Hecke (editor/publisher): My earliest memory of story ’is listening to Watership Down being read as a serial on ABC radio when I was about seven. You could say that I’ve been hooked ever since. I read voraciously and every writer should do the same because by reading you hear the cadences of a story. In fact reading a story out loud is a great way to get a feel for whether it is working or not. When you read out loud, you can tell where sentences are clunky and when they really DO work.

What do I look for in a story? Well, first I’ve asked myself, Why do I read? I read to be entertained, educated and to go somewhere else. A good story for me is one that makes me feel as if I’m living it. So, when I listened to Watership Down, I was on that journey with the rabbits through all their hardships and I cried when one of their mob died and laughed when something silly happened. And for me, if I’m not transported into that story within the first page or two, I’ll go looking for another one.

Part 4: What’s in a story …?

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Daniel Kovacevic (intern): The most important thing in modern fiction is subtlety.

One of the quickest ways to get on the wrong side of an audience is to insult the reader through over-explaining. Often allowing a reader to assume an answer is better than signposting a redundant answer for them.

Subtlety is also the key to prose. Authors shouldn’t feel the need to take every story as an opportunity to show off. You don’t need to showcase every style you know, or include every word in your vocabulary – the narrative should always be the hero of the piece.

And there is nothing less subtle than misspelt words, missing punctuation and grammatical errors – make sure you proofread

Part 3: What’s in a story …?

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Jodie Garth (intern): 1. Get me interested from the start. This may be done through setting up a strong voice, or with a creative/quirky idea, or some catchy dialogue. Within the first few lines I want to know that the rest of the story is worth reading.
2. Keep me interested. I could read a 5,000 word well-written story and not notice the length because I am so engaged, or a 1500 word poorly written story and find myself checking how many more pages I need to slog through. Maintain an appropriate pace for your story. Don’t gloss over important details or actions, leaving the reader confused or mentally trying to catch up. Conversely, don’t dwell on insignificant detail just to increase your word count.
3. Give me a satisfying ending. Don’t spoil a great story by finishing with a cliche, or rushing off an ending that feels forced. Answer enough of the reader’s questions to tie everything off, but don’t spell it all out in a patronising way.

 

Part 2: What’s in a story …?

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Tom O’Connell (intern): What I really look for is something that can move or affect me; the way I see it, that is the ultimate accolade a writer can hope to aspire to. When I say I like to be moved I don’t mean it in the cheesy, plucked heartstrings kind of way, but that I want to surrender myself to the writer, to their story and their intentions. Whether he or she wishes to make me laugh, make me cry, horrify me, frighten me, surprise me, or simply entertain me – it really doesn’t matter.

I’m game for any style and any subject matter, so long as it’s genuine and defies my expectations.

Feeling moved by a good piece of fiction is one of the finest sensations life can offer. To immerse yourself in a world that’s both convincing and compelling. To bond with a character, to feel invested in his journey.To chance upon a unique image or phrase and think, My God! I’ve felt what this writer’s describing! And to feel in awe of the impossible way they’ve managed to convey it.

Fireworks aside, these are the qualities I look for in a story. I say ‘look for’, but we all know there’s no need to look when it comes to a good story. A good story announces itself. It mightn’t always be in a way you can articulate; you just know it when you see it.

Part 1: What’s in a story …?

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If you’ve looked at the stuff on our Info pages, you’ll see that here at [untitled], we’re open to any genre; to popular, maintstream, or literary fiction; and that, ultimately, we just want a good story.

But what do we each individually look for in a story?  We thought we’d run a series of vignettes from each of our readers expressing what stories mean to us, and what we look for.

So here goes with the first of our readers …

Lauren Grosvenor (intern): When I read a story, I want to see the world through someone else’s eyes. It’s a rare thing for someone to be completely transparent. What I value most in writing is the ability of a writer — a stranger — to take a piece of themselves and use it to influence the way I see the world. And not only to give something of themselves, but do it in a way that wants me to be able to absorb the whole book at once. I look for writing that makes me curious, passionate and insatiable for the written word. The best writing, for me, both creates hunger and leaves you satiated.

[untitled] is now on Word Press.

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Welcome to the revamped [untitled] website. We’re still refurbishing the website, so there’ll be some changes over the coming weeks (or, possibly, months).  However, all the pages from the previous website are up and running.

As you can also see, we’ve gone Word Press, as it’s our intention to run a regular blog.  The blog will feature pieces about writing, reading, editing, and all things publishing, and will also keep you informed of all things [untitled] — submission calls, launches, competitons, etc.

We hope you like the new site.  Keep an eye out for the blogs.